1) Field of the Disclosure
The disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for designing and manufacturing composite laminate structures, and more particularly, to non-finite element optimization systems and methods for designing and manufacturing composite laminate structures.
2) Description of Related Art
Composite laminate structures are used in a wide variety of applications, including in the manufacture of component parts for air vehicles, such as aircraft and spacecraft, and other vehicles, such as watercraft, automobiles and trucks, due to their low weight, design flexibility, high strength-to-weight ratios, and other favorable properties. In aircraft design and manufacture, such composite laminate structures are used in increasing quantities to form the fuselage, wings, tail section, skin panels, and other components.
Composite laminate structures may be formed by laminating two or more plies or lamina together, such that the cumulative material properties of the composite laminate structure are superior to the individual material properties of each ply or lamina. Each ply or lamina is an arrangement of unidirectional or bidirectional (e.g., woven fabric) fibers suspended in a matrix material.
A composite laminate structure is formed with a stack of individual plies each having a fiber orientation angle. The stacking sequence of the individual plies in the composite laminate structure may be an important consideration in the design and manufacture of composite laminate structures. Plies having design variables, such as material and fiber orientation and ply thickness, may preferably be oriented and sequenced in an optimal arrangement to provide the optimal structural performance. However, composite laminate structures having additional design variables, such as fiber orientation and ply thickness, may be more challenging to find a global optimum design solution. Finding a global optimum solution plays a key role in having the ability to change the ply or layer sequences and orientations.
Known composite laminate optimization systems and methods exist. However, such known composite laminate optimization systems and methods typically use finite element modeling software utilizing a finite element model (FEM) to optimize layup orientations and sequences to satisfy structural constraints. The use of such finite element modeling software utilizing a finite element model (FEM) for composite laminate optimization may have decreased user friendliness, and may require precision, such as with element size and meshing, to achieve an accurate FEM analysis, which, in turn, may increase time and cost of design and manufacturing. In addition, the use of such finite element modeling software utilizing a finite element model (FEM) for composite laminate optimization may be limited to converging to only a local optimum solution and may not have the ability to converge to a global optimum solution. Moreover, the use of such finite element modeling software utilizing a finite element model (FEM) for composite laminate optimization may be time consuming to converge to obtain an optimization convergence solution. For example, the FEM may take several or more days to converge.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved system and method for optimizing composite laminate structures that provide advantages over known systems and methods.